The Civilization of Ancient Egypt vs Ancient Sumerian Civilization - Assignment Example

Culture v civilization Firstly, the term culture is employed with respect to a number of ways whereby man has generally got into terms with his environment, attempted to successfully pass skill, tradition, experience and knowledge to his successors. Anthropologists have observed further that culture is specific for a particular group of people and it is through culture where people are able to understand and appreciate themselves by enhancing a sense of belonging by reason of their common background. On the other hand, civilization has been explained as a state of the highest attainable state of a man’s development, socially, politically and economically. Common perception views civilization to be associated with an uptown way of life ‘city based’ where elites practice their economic and political and even religious power. Culture is therefore pre-existed civilization. Culture did exist during the Paleolithic period 200,000 to 100,000 years. But civilization did not. During this period, man was unable to process his own food and even the four kinds of early civilization, that is; use of military, economic and political power was non-existent then. (Food-Producing) Revolution At 8000 b. c. e, Neolithic (food-producing) theory faced history referring to a new agricultural developments, methods and means that saw the production of food in plenty and as a result, increase in population. Question II How civilization took shape along the Nile River in Egypt The history of civilization in Egypt owes itself to the narrow strip of River Nile in Egypt. It is categorized into three distinct periods delinked from each other by intermediate periods of destabilization in the process of civilization. These three periods include; a) Predynastic period, b) the Early Dynastic period and c) the three Old Kingdom periods. a) Predynastic period This period is dated at 500BC or thereabout. The Nile zone contained foliage and fauna in plenty due to the availability of water by Nile River. It is this period that domestication first begun as most Egyptians reverted to from hunting. A number of cultures then developed introducing agriculture that is, animal husbandry. Some art and craft also developed and items such as bracelets, combs and beads were made and pottery was also introduced. There existed an extensive mechanism of communication internally and externally with other forms of kingdoms or governments in the region. Some of the most notable and influential cultures under this period was the Naqada culture. This culture created various material goods which were in line with the level of escalating economic, political and social power. Among other items they developed were ceramic glazes or faience. In the last times of the phase, Naqada culture invented and begun to employ written symbols to later develop into hieroglyphs for purposes of writing in ancient Egyptian language. b).the Early Dynastic period In this period, Manetho, an Egyptian priest sought to unite two Kingdoms, the Upper and lower Egypt at around 3100 BC by his king name ‘meni’or menes in Greek. At the beginning of this period, the Dynastic pharaohs at first governed the Lower Egypt by instituting Memphis, a capital from where agriculture on the fertile areas was regulated. The economic and political power of the Pharaohs increased steadily and consequently powerful kingships developed. c).the three Old Kingdom periods. This period saw great developments in architecture, art, and technology which ultimately resulted in increased food and agricultural productivity as well as better-centralized system of governments-there existed educated officials. A justice system was developed. Ancient Egyptian crowning achievements were also made such as Giza pyramids and the Great Sphinx. Comparing the civilization of ancient Egypt and ancient Sumerian civilization In both systems of civilization, life and civilization began around or next to rivers for Egyptians was the Nile River while the Sumerians located in between two rivers, that is, Tigris and Euphrates. In Egypt Nile River’s floods were annually at similar times and was quite predictable. Floods in Tigris and Euphrates rivers were not predictable. While the Sumerians settled on flood plains of the two rivers at about 4000 BC, the Ancient Egyptians resided on the fertile banks of the Nile River. Both Egyptians and Sumerians developed sophisticated agriculture, religion and administration systems, save for the various differences between them respect to principal features of their ways of life. While the Sumerian religion involved the worship of four life giving deities , that is; the god of heaven, the goddess of earth, the god of air and the god of water there existed about 2000 recognized gods and goddesses in the Egyptian pantheon. Further, Egyptians worshipped pharaoh as a living god, but Sumerian system was not a theocracy. On death and life beliefs, the Egyptians since they were secured from attacks they lived lives prospectively making significant preparations for their passage into the life after death. On the other hand, the Sumerians were easily attacked and lived in volatile states, thus explains why their funerary rites were less complicated. The Sumerians developed a system of writing called cuneiform named after the wedge shaped writing tool used. Contrastingly, the Egyptians developed hieroglyphics. Sumerian and Egyptian governments differed to the extent that the Egyptian government seemed more authoritarian in nature and the pharaoh had absolute authority. In Sumer the city-state politics accommodated input from nobles acting as councils. The ancient Egyptian view of life after death Each and every ancient Egyptian believed in the existence of life after death. They spent their lives preparing for afterlife. Pharaohs constructed best tombs, collected the sophisticated funerary materials, procured in a very expensive means. Some provided for their afterlives in line with earthly ways. Irrespective wealth the expectation was that their afterlife was to be an idealized model of the way they lived on earth. Q1. During that period, there were financial difficulties. For an emperor to survive in performing its economical, political and administrative duties then finance and the means of procuring the same came in inevitably handy. It was also undisputed that one among these means of acquiring funds for administrative duties was by means of trade or an intense productivity in food and agriculture. On the other hand, Sumerians were skilled species of people who possessed practical and profound knowledge in agriculture, art architecture and technology as well as experts in long distance trading. The only compelling reason therefore as to why their invaders found it viatl to so adopt their culture was for the necessity of propelling its kingdom in order to support vital administrative duties for its survival (Levack et al, p 51). Q 2 Among other legacies that Hebrew left to Western Civilization include the following concept, absolute morality, self-improvement, and the striving to comprehend the forces that shape ones existence and the rigid patriarchal structure. Q3 Hittites did network of trade and communication. The unification of the Hittite Empire was fostered by incorporating worship of the gods of conquered peoples into their ceremonies. The Hittites also brought elements of Mesopotamian culture to Greece, possibly assisting in the transformation of Gilgamesh to Hercules as well as contributed to development of the discipline of history. Q4 Politically, there were of increased official privileges and military force in there neo-compared to the Persian Empire. And by contrast, Assyria and neo-Babylonia is larger than the former. Work Cited Levack, Brian P., Edward Muir, and Meredith Veldman. The West: encounters & transformations. 3rd ed. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print. Read More